BOS Wealth Management SA, the Luxembourg-based European wealth management arm of Bank of Singapore, has been handed a 210,000 euro fine by Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF for non-compliance with laws designed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
BOS Wealth Management serves as intermediary in the management of the Luxembourg-domiciled BOS International Fund Sicav, which held approximately 1.1 billion US dollars in assets at the end of 2021. The fund is a single legal entity incorporated in Luxembourg as an umbrella fund comprised of separate sub funds.
“The fine was imposed on the investment firm for non-compliance with some professional obligations with regard to the fight against money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism,” CSSF said on Wednesday.
Similar fines in Dubai
Luxembourg’s supervisor is not alone among supervisors when it comes to slapping Bank of Singapore on its wrist. Earlier this month, Dubai financial services authority DFSA said it has levied a fine of 1.1 million dollars on the Dubai branch of Bank of Singapore, citing “a number of contraventions of DFSA legislation, including for having inadequate systems and controls including those relating to anti-money laundering”.
The Dubai authority said it found deficiencies in the bank’s AML business risk assessments, client risk assessments, customer due diligence practices, suspicious activity reporting and identification of clients’ sources of funds.
Revenue of 14.2 million euro
According to its latest filing in the Luxembourg Business Register, BOS Wealth Management’s income is predominantly derived from its parent company. The Luxembourg unit has reported turnover of 14.2 million for last year, with a net result of 496,738 euro. Bank of Singapore Limited holds 100 percent of its capital.
Bank of Singapore is the private banking arm of OCBC Bank, a Singapore financial services group. Formerly known as ING Asia Private Bank, it was acquired by OCBC Bank in 2009 from ING Group for 1.46 billion US dollars. As of 30 September 2022, Bank of Singapore’s assets under management was 109 billion dollars.
BOS Wealth Management did not immediately respond to a phone request to comment on the CSSF fine. CSSF said its fine reflects “remedial actions already undertaken” by BOS to address the deficiencies identified.
Adler Group SA fined for non-compliance
In a separate announcement, CSSF on Thursday said it fined Luxembourg real estate company Adler Group SA with a fine of 50,000 euro for non-compliance “with the requests for information or the submission of incomplete or inaccurate answers to these requests for information formulated by the CSSF”. Adler has three months to appeal this fine.